Upon returning from Europe recently, I was saddened to learn of the sudden closing of Daily Table in Boston.

For those who don’t know, Daily Table was a beautiful, innovative store concept created by Doug Rauch over ten years ago, with its initial store established in the Dorchester area of Boston in 2015.

For ten years, Daily Table fulfilled its mission of providing nutritious, high-quality food for everyone at affordable prices.  As described perfectly on its website, Daily Table worked to “fill the gap between free food resources and traditional retail grocery stores, ensuring that everyone has the choice to put good food on the table every day.” 

Through effective sourcing, partnerships, and donations, Daily Table was able to provide a wide array of nutritious food options to its patrons in a pristine, friendly setting – augmented by a kitchen staff producing excellent prepared meals for fast, convenient pick-up.

And by taking excess production from vendor partners that might otherwise go to waste, the organization provided additional environmental and social benefits to all.

Daily Table defined “community” – improving access to healthy food for all, tailoring prepared food items to the tastes of patrons,  providing consistently low prices and convenience, hiring locally and paying living wages, and more.  Further, SNAP recipients, those most in need of affordable healthy food, received additional discounts on fresh fruits and vegetables.

The model was innovative and inspirational. And it worked.  At one point, there were five store locations in Massachusetts, and over the years the team provided guidance to other non-profits seeking to develop similar models to address poor health outcomes linked to food deserts.

I had the privilege of touring Daily Table’s Dorchester location in 2016 with founder Doug Rauch, who educated me on the vision and development of the store in those early days, which I covered in detail in this post (aptly titled Serving Affordable Nutrition Daily). 

It was a powerful experience.  I remember the undercurrent of excitement that permeated the store at the time, and I witnessed the sheer joy of two shoppers at checkout when they realized that their substantial purchase of healthy food items that day was likely 25-30% of the cost at other retail stores.

There was so much good encapsulated in that experience:  healthy food, wide selection, convenience, affordable prices, dignified setting, local employees, innovative partnerships, responsible purpose, waste reduction, community, and above all, inspiration.    

I visited a few of the stores on several occasions in subsequent years, meeting with employees, observing operations, and chatting with clients – and that sense of inspiration always came through to me.

And it comes through on the video on the Daily Table website.  One shopper notes, “We love the Daily Table, we want more of them, everywhere,” while another adds, “It is great selection, great prices, great mission.”  Another individual states, “It’s not just the here and now, it’s about the future, and the impact that Daily Table can make on the future of those families, of those generations, and within this country.”

For a decade, Daily Table accomplished its mission, providing nutritious food at low prices to thousands of families each month, hosting cooking and nutrition classes, providing well-paying jobs to local residents, building community, and reducing the amount of food needlessly going to waste in the greater Boston region – and over time expanding for greater impact. 

Daily Table’s 2024 Impact Report cited the harsh reality of food insecurity in Massachusetts, adding that the need for its solution has never been greater.  The stores provided affordable healthy food to more than 260,000 residents in 2024 – up 24% from 2023 – with 37% of sales comprised of fresh fruits and vegetables (compared to an industry average of 8-14%).  The Report also cited its Flash Finds initiative, in which high-quality excess food items were acquired from distributors and sold at ultra-low prices, keeping edible food out of landfills and allowing consumers to further stretch their food dollars.

Yet now those stores are suddenly gone, and those community members are left without that anchor source of healthy food at low prices and all the other benefits the stores provided.

I find myself thinking of the title to a Hemingway short story, The End of Something Good, for the closure of the Daily Table stores is very definitely the end of something good.

When we lose innovative, purpose-driven models like this that are specifically addressing the weaknesses of our food system, something is definitely wrong.  And we need to question why.

I don’t know all of the details behind the shutdown, the website notes the challenges of historically high food price increases and the current uncertain and difficult funding environment, but I can’t help thinking that the current political environment – in which assistance to the poor is being aggressively cut, sustainability and equity initiatives are under attack, and some organizations are “greenhushing” and shying away from leading on responsible social and environmental initiatives – played a significant role. 

And for that, we should all be very concerned.

We should be looking to grow models like Daily Table, not lose them.

The closure of these stores will leave thousands of consumers without a source of low-priced healthy food.  It will lead to an increase in poor health outcomes.  And it will lead to tons of excess food that was previously being captured for the best use possible (human consumption) reverting to lesser value streams (ex. AD, composting) and likely landfill.  In sum, it will lead to social, environmental, and financial costs borne by all of us.  Last, it will send a negative signal to others trying to emulate such a creative model to provide healthy food to those in need by optimizing food resources.

This is truly the end of something good.  

The final message on Daily Table’s site noted that “with heavy hearts” the team made the decision to cease operations in just a few days. 

Having seen the positive impact of these stores firsthand, I have the same heavy heart as I reflect on their closure.

Daily Table is a model that we should be attempting to replicate around the country, not close.

There are deep lessons here, in my mind.

We continue to tolerate hunger and inadequate access to healthy food for millions of Americans while at the same time letting millions of tons of food go to waste, not only at the expense of people, but at the expense of our planet, too.

It’s an obscene disconnect that isn’t sustainable, and yet our policymakers comfortably perpetuate it (see my prior post on this theme). 

And more concerning is the fact that we seem to be headed in the wrong direction in terms of addressing food security.

I’ve been to Daily Table stores many times, and I have seen the good their team members created.  They fed their neighbors, improving their health.  They prevented excess food from going to waste.  They built community.  They provided inspiration for positive change.  And they provided a model for a better food system – one that can be replicated – if we find the commitment to do so.

For that, I want to congratulate Doug Rauch and all Daily Table employees over the past decade who had so much positive impact over the years.

They deserve our thanks.

I encourage readers to review the Daily Table website while it is still available.  In the video on the main page, a former Dorchester store manager notes “Providing affordable food for all is something that can be applied to all sorts of neighborhoods – this can be a national thing.”

Yes.  Providing affordable, healthy food for all should be a national thing.

And in my mind, it should be a very basic endeavor in America today.

But unfortunately it isn’t. 

And that should greatly concern all of us.